2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003
Nice visualization by Brownbook. You can view the full sized poster by visiting their website [Here]
Not sure how many of you are Le Mans fans but if you are and you’re stuck at work you can kinda watch the Le Mans online by visiting the Audi Live Racing website. They have a live cockpit cam inside the leading Audi car with commentary on the full race. Better than nothing. [Link]
Update: Here is the link to the Corvette on board cam [Link]
Yesterday I finally got the chance to pass by Elevation Burger at The Avenues. I had heard from a friend that they’re always packed so I tried to pass by early and got there around 1:45 which clearly wasn’t early enough since the place was already full. Luckily I found one table clearing up in a corner and had Nat wait at the table while I ordered at the cashier. The interior is pretty dull and kinda reminds me of a food court which is fine since it’s more like an upscale fast food joint then a restaurant but one thing that really bothered me was the lack of proper ventilation. I quickly tweeted that and the owner of the place replied saying they’re working on it. That’s great because I already have a hard time getting Nat to go to a burger place yet alone a burger place that will also make her smell like burgers.
I took a quick glance at the menu and right away knew what I was going to have. I ordered the Elevation Burger which is a double patty double cheese burger and added Elevation sauce to it, I also added a side order of french fries and a fountain drink. I took my receipt and went and waited for my order. A few minutes later my burger arrived and it looked really good. I quickly took my picture and then dug in. The burger was pretty thick, a lot thicker than it looks in the picture since after I picked up the burger I noticed the patty had slid down to the other side. Note to everyone, I love thick burgers. I took my first bite and in under a minute it was gone. I was originally worried the bun wouldn’t be soft enough but it was and it also did a good job of soaking up all the burger juice which there was a lot of. The beef patties were super greasy, by the time I was done with the burger there was a large pool of grease lying at the bottom of my plate. I thought the sauce could have been thicker since it was washing away with the grease but it might have been thick to start with and then got diluted with the grease I’m not sure. In any case the burger was good and I was considering ordering a second helping but since I still had my fries I decided not to.
I’m not a fan of their fries and wouldn’t order them again. If you’re a fan of home made fries you’ll like the Elevation ones but the next time I’m there I’ll be skipping the fries and ordering a second burger instead. The main direct competitor for Elevation burger right now at the Avenues is Johnny Rockets but in a few months time it’s also going to be Shake Shack. Would I go back? Yes I would. It’s located in a convenient location, it’s a no frills in and out dinning place with good burgers. The biggest issue really is their ventilation which is getting fixed this week. Elevation Burger is located outside in Avenues Phase II, on the top floor.
Aïshti and Aïzone at the Avenues have a 30% sale. It started yesterday and from what I can tell everything is on sale except for one tiny section of new arrivals.
According to Arabian Business, Magnolia Bakery will be opening in Kuwait within the next 18 months. Magnolia are known for their cupcakes but I personally think they have an amazing chocolate swirl cheesecake. Whenever I passed by their New York locations they always had a queue of people lined up outside. In Dubai on the other hand whenever I passed by it was always empty which is obviously a lot more convenient.
So now we’re going to have Magnolia and The Hummingbird Bakery in Kuwait along with Shake Shack. It’s going to be hard to stick to my diet. [Link]
Thanks Lomo
A couple of readers emailed asking on more information about VPN’s so I figured I would do quick write up about it. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and to understand how it can be of use to you I will give you a quick example. There are some sites (mostly media) that require you to be a US resident to be able to either watch videos or listen to music. A quick example is Hulu.com. If you want to watch a video on Hulu you would get the message (screenshot above) that videos can only be streamed to US residents. A VPN would help you get around that restriction.
How VPN works is you sign up to a VPN service (I use StrongVPN) and then you access the internet through their servers. So instead of you visiting Hulu directly from your computer in Kuwait and getting the error I mentioned earlier, with a VPN based in the US you end up accessing Hulu through them so Hulu thinks it’s you in the US. I did a quick illustration above to better visualize this.
With VPN active all the websites you visit will think you’re based in the US. It’s that simple really. It also doesn’t require you to change your browsing habits and unlike proxy websites you don’t have to access the web through a website. Once you setup VPN on your computer you connect to it from your desktop and then just browse the web like you would usually do. The above screen shot is from my Mac, I just click on Connect VPN and that’s it.
I know it sounds a bit complicated at first and maybe hard to grasp but really all you need to know is that VPN allows you to access sites that are restricted to just the US (like Hulu, Netflix, Pandora etc..). As I mentioned earlier my VPN account is from the company StrongVPN. I’ve been using them for over a year now and haven’t had any problems. I’ve also got their cheapest package. Here is the [Link]
If you have any questions just ask below.
I’ve been getting really bored of regular tuna and so when I found this John West packet at Sultan Center it looked like an interesting alternative. I checked the back label and it said I could heat it up in the microwave and it was just 156 calories. I bought a packet to try it out and it turned out to be actually pretty good. You just open the packet, empty the tuna onto a plate and microwave it for 30 seconds.
It looks extremely unappetizing but it actually tasted much better than regular tuna. Wouldn’t mind having a few packets at home for those late night cravings. The biggest issue though is price, 1 packet costs KD1.750 for the “Sweet Thai Red Chilli” although they did have different flavored ones for around 500fils cheaper.
There is a shop next to my office that has a discount on everything including Maglite flashlights. They’re selling the 3-D cell version for KD6.250 which is nearly the same price as Amazon and the cheapest I’ve seen in Kuwait. The place is located right next to the NBK branch on Fahad Al Salem Street, opposite the park.
There is a petition currently circulating twitter asking the Ministry of Communications to break the ISP monopoly. Not sure if it is going to do any good but its worth a shot and just takes a minute to sign. Here is the [Link]
Update: While on the subject, check out this post on Z District on a conversation that took place on the KEMS Facebook page [Link]
I got a lot of emails regarding the political activist Salwa al Mutairi’s recent comments on how men should be allowed to have sex slaves. She even took the extra mile and brainstormed ideas on where the sex slaves could come from. Personally I think that is a terrible idea obviously and she probably lost a lot of credibility because of her statements but, it is her opinion and she is entitled to it. Freedom of the speech means even people with wacky ideas are allowed to share them. Anyway here is the link with the story in case you missed it. [Link]
A new website just got launched that’s similar in style to Sheeel.com where every day a new product gets listed at a discounted rate. The site is called deals.com.kw and I’m guessing they saw how successful Sheeel was and decided to do something similar. Competition is good and at the end of day we now have another option which is also good. Here is their [Link]
I’ve got a ton of TV shows and documentaries on my server and for the longest time ever I had been using XBMC to watch them all. XBMC is basically a software that allows you to stream videos from another computer or hard drive. Originally I used to use XBMC installed onto the old original xbox, then I installed it on a hacked AppleTV but since XBMC on AppleTV couldn’t play 720p video I finally I ended up purchasing the small Acer Revo and was using that to run XBMC until Boxee.
Boxee is the name of another media center software that was actually built using XBMC. But unlike XBMC, Boxee was more focused on providing content (TV Shows/Movies) from the internet primarily and from a local home server secondary. Boxee never really interested me much until the end of 2010 when they did something I always wanted XBMC to do… release a set-top device that was dedicated to just running the media center software. The Boxee Box (pictured above) is a beautifully designed tiny angular cube that runs the Boxee software. Everything about it from the package to the interface is very tastefully designed and that really sets it apart from XBMC. Where XBMC looks like it was put together by geeks, Boxee looks like it was put together by Apple. They even paid attention to the little details like how the Boxee logo lights up in a nice green glow when the device is powered on.
It might not show in the pictures above but the Boxee Box is pretty small, maybe around the same height as the iPhone. It comes with a double sided remote control that has a very simple minimal amount of buttons on one side and a QWERTY keyboard on the other. The remote uses radio instead of infrared to send signals which is great because you can hide the Boxee Box anywhere in the room and still be able to control it. It also comes with a power adapter that works in Kuwait (110-240v) as well as a HDMI cable.
The interface is very easy to use. You can easily browse the available online TV Shows and Movies all nicely organized but you need to have a VPN account (I use StrongVPN) to actually watch the shows online since they don’t allow non-US residents to stream stuff. Watching your local media files is also easy, you can either plug in a hard drive into one of the Boxee USB ports or connect to your home server over Ethernet or Wifi. Once you add the media it will scan IMDB for information on the shows or movies and then download the DVD cover and all the other information and store them on Boxee. It’s really very easy to use, much easier than XBMC since Boxee is trying to be fairly mainstream.
There are some minor downsides but it’s really just nitpicking. I don’t like how the remote control feels and I can never tell which side is up or down without looking at the remote. The remote keyboard buttons on the rear also need to be pressed hard but I guess that’s better than no keyboard at all. Boxee is also not as easily customizable as XBMC.
Price wise it’s fairly decent costing around KD50 on Amazon plus around KD13 to ship it with Aramex to Kuwait. I think this is probably the best media center option available right now until Plex (another XBMC clone) starts working properly on the Roku. Boxee doesn’t have any trouble playing 1080p video files and most importantly it doesn’t take much shelf space while still managing to look very cool. If you have a lot of media files and are looking for an easy way to watch them on your TV screen then I highly recommend the Boxee Box. It’s only available on Amazon and here is the link if you’re interested [Amazon Link]
Update: Forgot to mention you can install Apps in Boxee and my favorite is Pandora.
A recently graduated high school student decided to start a campaign to raise awareness on mental health issues and to try and put an end to the discrimination and “mark of shame” associated with mental illness here in Kuwait. The student set up a website with a ton of information on the different types of mental illnesses as well as information on how you can help. So please show your support by visiting the website [Here]
